


Red Arrow, Purple Flash

by DarknessAroundUs



Series: Supernatural AU [7]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Bisexual Veronica Lodge, F/F, F/M, Hacking, Superheroes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-02-13
Packaged: 2019-10-27 13:18:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17767508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarknessAroundUs/pseuds/DarknessAroundUs
Summary: The first time Jughead meets Betty, he doesn't know it is Betty, he just knows that he is not only one hacking into the FBI database.The first time Cheryl meets Veronica they are both in full costume in an abandoned warehouse.A superhero AU.





	Red Arrow, Purple Flash

**Author's Note:**

> I originally posted the first half of this as part 1 of 2, but then thought better of it, and took it down, revised it, finished the rest and am now re-posting it as a very long oneshot. Sorry for that. 
> 
> This was inspired in part by my love of the Flash. My favorite part of the Flash is not Barry Allen (although I have a soul, so I am pro West-Allen), but the whole team that supports him, particularly Cisco and Caitlin. 
> 
> This isn’t directly based off any show in particular (although the coffee shop in the Flash makes an appearance). I’m just riffing with/inspired by the superhero world. I’ve always wanted to write something about the people that support the superheroes. The team behind the mask. 
> 
> But I also really wanted to write Cheronica (i’ve dabbled in it before in Curl of Ash) and I loved the idea of the girls as superheroes. That said, when I first started this oneshot (months ago when it was still a oneshot), I was a lot keener on Cheryl, then I am right now, but I’m trying to push those feelings aside for the sake of this story.

**March**

Jughead is eating a hamburger and sifting through the FBI’s website. Not the one that is filled to the brim with official statements and rules, but the one that the FBI uses to store their files and to communicate internally between agents. 

Jughead is not an FBI agent – as if. He’s always been the kind of person who leans towards the illegal. Although hacking government websites is less of a lean towards the illegal and more of a full on embrace of it. But it’s for a good reason, it always is. 

Central City has been plagued recently by an influx of Jingle Jangle. Jughead wants to find out what the FBI knows about that. If they have any leads, he himself has not yet unearthed. They certainly have a lot more resources than he does. 

Cheryl is his employer. Although Jughead personally thinks the the terms employee-employer are inaccurate when it comes to describing their relationship. Cheryl is a superhero (The Superhero, as far as she’s concerned) and he is her hacker. One part of her support team, as she is keen on reminding him. But the most essential part. Archie is a great trainer and Fangs is the best mechanical engineer out there, but Jughead’s the only one whose any good with computers. 

Jughead would make a lot more working for anyone else. Hell, he would make a lot more working for himself. But instead, for the sake of society, safety, and if he wants to be dramatic, the very soul of Central City, Jughead has chosen to throw his considerable hacker know-how behind Cheryl’s little bow and arrow vigilante act. 

Cheryl like all cliched golden age vigilantes is rich. Really rich. Like born into pools of money, wealthy. Jughead grew up in a trailer park. He started hacking as a way to put food on the table for his little sister Jellybean. 

But Cheryl recruited him five years ago and they work together, well enough. She pays him and provides a nice apartment for he and Jelly to live in. The benefits are good.

He’s in the Central City section of the FBI’s database. He does a quick search for Jingle Jangle and finds a small cache of documents, which he downloads. That’s when he notices that there is someone else present on the back end of things. He doesn’t think they’re the FBI, they seem to be a hacker just like him. He starts programing to figure out who they are, but just like that, they’re gone. 

Two days later he’s breaking into police headquarters to read their records. This time it is not a metaphorical or digital breaking in, but a literal one. He prefers not to do such things. He could always send Cheryl, after all he’s the one who already has a criminal record. But she would whine and complain, and put it off for days. Doing it himself was just so much more efficient. 

So here he is, at 2 in the morning sifting through police records, searching for anything related to jingle jangle. He’s so focused on the filing system in front of him that he doesn’t hear anyone walk up behind him. Suddenly someone is clearing their throat, next to him and he’s saying every swear word known to man.

He looks at her and can tell right away that she’s not a cop. He doesn’t know how though, maybe just because she’s not arresting him. 

She’s wearing all black. Her blond is pulled back into a high ponytail. 

“Who the fuck are you?” He asks.

“I could ask the same question,” she smiles, “but I actually think we met before.”

He filters through the memories in his head trying to search for her face, but he swears he’s never met her before, “Where?”

“Online.” He doesn’t do dating sites, so that couldn’t be it, ge has a clear look of confusion on his face. 

“The FBI database,” she says, putting him out of his misery, “We are both looking into the Jingle jangle epidemic, apparently,” she gestures at the files he’s clutching in his hands. 

“Oh, yeah. Of course.” Jughead says “It’s nice to meet you in person.” He intends the statement to sound sarcastic, biting, but instead for some strange reason it comes out as genuine. 

“We can scan the files together, and then review them elsewhere.” The women says. 

“Why would I trust you?” Jughead asks, realizing after the fact that his delivery failed to convey his sarcasm.

“Because I suspect we both work for superheros.” 

“How the fuck did you figure that out?” Jughead says. He gets that they are both on the same case, but that was a major leap she just made. 

She smiles and points at his backpack. Pinned to its ragged black exterior is a button that says “Team Red Arrow.” Fangs had pinned it there last week as part of a joke. Jughead must not have removed it. It was such an ameture move. It’s not like it was a mass produced button available anywhere.

“I forgot that was there.” Jughead says, shaking his head. “Which superhero do you work for?”

“Purple Flash.”

“Who?” Jughead’s never heard of him or her. 

“She’s new in town.” The girl says with a shrug. “We should focus so we can get out of here before the cops come.”

“Agreed.” 

They spend the next 15 minutes focused on scanning all the files. They work together well, particularly considering he still doesn’t even know her name.

Only after they’ve left the building and are reviewing their ill gotten files in an all night dinner, does she tell him that her name is Betty, and he surprises himself by revealing his own. 

It’s nice to spend time with someone who actually knows what he does for a living, someone who essentially does the same thing. Someone who keeps the same long hours and does the same kind of dirty work for a good cause. 

**April**

Chery’s on a rooftop watching a drug dealer sell his merchandise to two kids. She readies her bow as she comes up with a plan that involves shooting the product and not the people involved.

Then, as quick as lightning, a purple blur zips through the alleyt. It runs between the drug dealer and the two kids. It pauses for a second there. Or at least Cheryl thinks it does. Then she realizes that whoever the purple blur is, is still moving just as fast, only it is in a more limited space, so it appears differently.  
After twenty or so seconds the blur moves on in the opposite direction.

Cheryl examines the scene. All the drugs are gone, and the dealer is strung upside down from a lamppost, which is very Batman, Cheryl decides.

The two kids stare at the empty trunk of the car for a second before they run off.

Cheryl’s familiar with the superheroes that are active in Central City. There are not a lot. There is the Black Cloak and the Huntress, but there is no one that can move like this.

Just because she doesn’t know about this new hero in town, it doesn’t mean that her team doesn’t. So she calls Jughead on the comm, and describes the hero as a purple blur. He identifies the hero as the Purple Flash (much more marketable than blur), and as a women.

“How do you know that the Purple Flash is a her?” Cheryl asks, intrigued. The hero had been moving far too fast for Cheryl to determine anything like that.

Jughead coughs, and at first Cheryl thinks he’s faking it, but it goes on for too long for that. When he stops coughing he says “Sorry, something went down the wrong tube. A traffic camera caught a photo of her last week.”

“Could you identify who is underneath the mask from the photo?” Cheryl’s curious. She likes being up to date about who is doing what in her town, and she’s never heard of this hero.

“No, I ran it through facial recognition software, nothing.” 

“Ok. Is there anything else going on?” 

“I found a location where they might be making Jingle Jangle, if you want to check it out?”

“Of course.” Cheryl says, adjusting her cloak. The coordinates come in on her phone as she makes her way to her car. She’d really wanted a motorcycle instead. It went so much better with her aesthetic, but it just wasn’t as practical. She wasn’t very good at riding one period, and riding one with all her gear was beyond her comfort level.

 **May**

Betty’s sitting in the window of Jitters drinking her mocha with whip, when she hears his steady voice whisper “Hello” into her ear.

She turns in her seat and there is Jughead, black curls with a bright white smile, his body already angling in for a hug. It’s a little awkward, because she’s still mostly sitting down, but it still feels nice. 

He slides into the chair across from her, a huge smile on his face. This is not their first date, or even their fifth. Somehow in the last month they’ve found a way to spend most of their limited free time together. 

Which isn’t to say it’s all gone smoothly. Their first date was interrupted three times by Cheryl's urgent calls for help, and once more by Veronica. Since then they had mostly taken to meeting during the day. 

It wasn’t that crime didn’t happen during daylight hours, but neither of their respective bosses were as active then. Only if it was a real emergency like a metahuman threatening to destroy the whole city, did their bosses seem to wake up before noon. 

Unfortunately that meant that Betty and Jughead were now operating on a lot less sleep, because they were trying to find more time to be together. 

Betty had been up till 4 AM helping guide Veronica on a stealth mission through the city seeking a kidnapped twelve year old, but she still got up at 9 AM in order to meet Jughead here. 

Now that she was thinking of sleep, or the lack thereof, she noticed the bags under his eyes. “Go order coffee.” She says reaching across to pat his hand. 

“I already did, on my phone. I will pick it up at the bar in a minute. How’d you sleep last night?”

“Ok. You?”

“Fine, but I always sleep better with you there.”

“I don’t feel comfortable staying over at your apartment, because of Jellybean and you have to stay over there sometimes because she shouldn’t have to live alone.”

“You need to get over that. She won’t mind.” 

It’s hard to explain, but as a younger sister herself, Betty has a lot of sympathy for Jellybean, even though she has never actually met her. She remembers how hurt she was when her sister chose a boyfriend over her, and her sister wasn’t even her primary caregiver. 

“Maybe once we’ve met properly, I’ll feel comfortable going over to your place.” Betty says. She really means it too. It’s not like she wants to meet Jughead’s only real family for the first time when she gets up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. Just thinking of that scenario makes her flush red. 

“Good, because you’re about to meet her.” Jughead says with a cheshire cat grin. 

“What?” Betty sits up and glances around. She’s seen pictures of Jellybean but she doesn’t see her in the cafe right now. Betty looks down at her outfit. It’s plane but serviceable. Though she reminds herself that she hasn’t put on makeup yet this morning, as she just thought she was going to see Jughead, and Jughead had made it abundantly clear he didn’t care.

“Sorry to spring it on you like this, but I figured if you knew in advance you might panic, or over plan, and I didn’t want either of those things to happen. She should be here any second.” 

Betty glances up at the door and sees a teenager, hair a teal blue, walk through. She’s got the same thin frame as Jughead and she has made the same basic fashion choices, if you could call black and plaid fashion choices. Jughead waves, and Jellybean smiles back nervously. 

That nervous grin actually gives Betty a feeling of hope. If they’re both nervous maybe this whole thing won’t be as painful as she thought it would be. 

Jellybean comes over and Jughead says “Jellybean this is my girlfriend Betty, Betty this is Jellybean.”

Jellybean raises one eyebrow and says “Labels already, Jug?”

“If it wasn’t serious, I wouldn’t be introducing you.” Jughead says with a laugh. 

“How would I know that? You’ve never introduced me to anyone before?”

“Exactly,” Jughead winks back. “Excuse me, i’ve got to go pick up our coffees from the bar.”

Jellybean nods. “So Betty, what do you do for a living?”

“The same thing Jughead does.”

“Really?” Jellybean looks skeptical and Betty realizes what she’s thinking that Betty doesn’t know what Jughead actually does for a living. 

“I too am employed by a superhero.” 

“A superhero whose drink you can order at Jitters?” JB asks curiously as Jughead hands her a triple shot red arrow with soymilk.

“Not yet.” Betty smiles. “Although she really wants hers to have some spice in it.”

“No way! You work for Purple flash? I’ve read about her on all the blogs. She seems great.” JB manages to keep her enthusiasm from being too loud. Besides the cafe is mostly empty. It’s the calm before the lunch break rush.

“She is.”

“Can you tell me her name?” Jellybean asks wiggling in her seat.

“No. I told Jughead though, we figured it would be easier and less awkward if each other knew.” Betty says with a smile. That was something they had sorted out on their third date after they’d grown tired of coming up with ridiculous nicknames for their respective bosses. 

“Have you met the rest of Jug’s team?”

“Not Cheryl, but everyone else.” Betty says with a smile. 

It had just made sense for her to meet them particularly since Jughead had needed her help tracking down a villain known as the Beetle a few weeks back. Betty was used to working alone, but Cheryl had a bigger budget and support staff.

They had not introduced each other to their bosses though. Both women had the kind of personalities that made that sort of thing a little nerve wracking. Besides both bosses were territorial. No new relationship needed that kind of pressure.

“Fangs and Archie are great” Betty says. Maybe because Cheryl was not easygoing, everyone who worked for her was. 

“I’m surprised you didn’t dump Jughead for Archie.” 

“Archie is not my type.” 

“He’s definitely mine, but so is Cheryl.” JB says with a smile.

“I don’t want to hear it.” Jughead shakes his head as if he was trying to clear it of the notion. “They are both way too old for you.”

The rest of the time passes quickly. Betty finds it surprisingly easy to talk to JB. Although she shouldn’t be surprised probably, because JB is a lot like Jughead, just more casually open, less covered in protective layers.

 **June**

Veronica has knocked out three perpetrators, when a fourth runs at her. 

Thankfully the guy never reaches her because an arrow intervenes. Veronica’s shocked.  
She looks up to see who shot it, and she sees a women clad in a long red cloak and tight, shiny, red bodysuit, with a small mask covering not much more than a pair of sunglasses would. The Red Arrow, of course, every bit as beautiful as the paper’s made her out to be. Her red lips curling up into a smile.

“Thank you,” Veronica says. 

“Of course. Anything to help a fellow hero.” The Red Arrow says, flipping her hair back with a hand. “This is the first time i’ve seen you stop.” 

Veronica has to keep moving most of the time. It’s how she stays alive. It’s also how she manages to put away so many criminals every night. 

“So you’ve seen me before?” Veronica hasn’t seen the Red Arrow before. But she knows all about the masked vigilante. She was the first real hero in Central City, known for her deadly aim, wit, and fashion sense.

When Veronica was first struck by dark matter and discovered her powers, she felt so alone. It was Betty, who pointed out how much Red Arrow did without powers, and that fact helped encourage Veronica to become a hero herself. 

“From a distance.” the Red Arrow says with a smile. 

Veronica nods. Betty spends a lot of time reminding her that a lot of people have seen Veronica, if only in blur form. Still she can’t believe her hero, her inspiration, has seen her, without Veronica noticing her. 

“Everything ok?” Betty asks over her headpiece. 

“Yes.” Veronica says quietly. “I just ran into the Red Arrow.”

“Oh.” Betty replies. Betty is well aware of Veronica’s infatuation with the Red Arrow. She knows exactly how much this meeting means to Veronica.

Veronica looks down at the men lying unconscious on the ground, and at the jingle jangle they spilled when they fell. 

“Are you working on finding the jingle jangle supplier as well?” Veronica asks the Red Arrow.

“I am. My guys swear they’re close to cracking the case.” 

“Mine do too.” Veronica feels a little guilty for implying that Betty is a) a male, and b) more than one person. But she’s feeling a little competitive, so can’t help herself. 

“Let the best women win.” The Red Arrow says, blowing a kiss before she turns around to go. 

Veronica can’t help herself, she blasts off at full speed right past the red arrow, then glances back behind her to see the women’s expression as her hair flies up in the air due to the speed. She looks all flustered, and Veronica can’t help but laugh, because she’s going full speed and now the Red Arrow can’t see or even hear her. She is already a block away. 

**July**

In Jughead’s dreams he’s cuddling Betty on the sofa as they watch a nonsensical movie featuring the people in his life. Jellybean is there as a hairdresser, Fangs is a kindergarten teacher, Cheryl is the president of the United States, but the Jughead in the dream is mostly focused on dream Betty, the way her body pressed up against his, the warmth of it. 

He wakes to find the real Betty in his arms. They are not watching TV. Instead they are snuggled in Betty’s bed. Jughead is the big spoon. Usually when he wakes up from a good dream he misses it. This time the reality is even better than the dream, and that thought fills him with an unprecedented amount of joy.

He lays there for a few minutes, noticing how good Betty feels pressed next to him, but he finds his mind restless, a little distracted. He’s thinking about Jingle Jangle, how many lives were being ruined by the stuff right now, while he was lying there in her arms. 

Jughead extricates himself slowly and makes his way over to his laptop. They're at his apartment tonight. When they first got together Jughead made the strict declaration that he would never stay more than one night at a time at Betty’s for JB’s sake. She was only 17, after all. She still needed someone around, just in case. 

At the time Jughead had thought that it would help things from accelerating too fast. That was not the case. They spent almost every night together now (or rather early morning, most days they didn’t get to sleep till 4 AM because of work). They just switched apartments. 

Jughead opens his laptop and logs in online. It’s 7 AM so JB should be waking up any minute. Usually she heads out to school without checking in with Jughead, so he didn’t expect to see her before she left. He was usually asleep.

Cheryl’s still asleep so there’s no updates from her end, but Jughead’s been keeping an eye on the police chief's email, and he gets a message every time an email is exchanged that contains the phrase jingle jangle. He opens up Chief Keller's email only to see that there is no new information attached. 

It’s not really a surprise. The police are usually miles behind them. He doesn’t know why he even bothers tracking what they are talking about. 

Three weeks ago Jughead and Betty discovered the name of the main drug runner - Malachi. The police still don’t know that. Not that the name has helped them too much. They know what he looks like too. They just don’t know where to find him.

Jughead jumps with shock when arms reach up around his shoulders. Then relief floods his system. It’s Betty, of course. 

He tilts his head so he can see her face and she kisses him briefly on the lips. He feels a little nervous. The two partners he’s had in the past hated when he got up at unexpected hours to work, they always tried to lure him back to sleep, and they always got frustrated when he refused. 

So it made him anxious that Betty was up now, presumably because of him. 

“What are you up to?” She asks. 

“The jingle jangle case still.” He says, exhaling loudly. He’s waiting for the other shoe to drop. Instead she kisses him gently on the cheek before pulling away and retrieving her own laptop.

“I can help.” She says, sitting next to him on the end of the bed. Even though it is 7 it was still dark in the room. Jughead had invested in top of the line blackout curtains to insure that. So he could only see her face properly when her own laptop screen turned on. 

“I love you.” He says, a little shocked by his own bravery in this moment. 

“I love you too.” She says, a smile on her lips, he kisses them, feels the smile there. He keeps waiting to wake up, but that’s not how reality works. 

**August**

Cheryl’s perched on the roof of a building looking at the warehouse across the street. According to Jughead’s research the jingle jangle that’s in the city is either made here, or housed here, temporarily.

She wants to go in, but Jughead’s told her to just watch tonight. Usually she listens to what he has to say, even when pretending to do otherwise, but today she’s pissed. 

She had walked into her headquarters, Thornhill, earlier this evening to find a blond joking with Archie and Fangs. It was a surprise to say the least. All three looked rather comfortable together, sharing a pizza while staring at the monitor tracking criminal activity in Central City. 

Cheryl had been forced to cough loudly, and only then all three had turned to see her. Cheryl rarely visited Thornhill at night. Usually she was far too busy out on the streets to be there, although now she saw why that was an issue. She suspected the blond had been there at night for months. 

She looked so comfortable in the space, so comfortable with the men that surrounded her. She had nicknames for both of them, yet Cheryl had never met her before. 

Betty introduced herself hesitantly, while Cheryl spat loud angry words everywhere, and then pulled Jughead aside when he showed up, as he was apparently the person responsible for Betty’s appearance here. 

“What were you thinking, hobo?” Cheryl yelled at him. He remained calm.

“She’s my girlfriend, Cheryl. She’s perfectly safe.”

“You told your girlfriend who you worked for? That’s against our sacred rules. I’ve never told anyone I’ve dated who I am.”

“That’s because you’ve never seriously dated anyone. Besides Betty’s a hacker too. She’s very capable of finding things out, if I try to keep them from her.”

That made Cheryl even madder. No one wants their lack of a serious dating history brought up. Besides if Betty’s a hacker, doesn’t that make her actually dangerous?

“You brought a hacker in here? Didn’t that strike you as risky?”

“Remember last month when you took down Glamazon?” Cheryl nods. She had loathed the Glamazon.“I was only able to do that with Betty’s help. That was a two hacker job.”

“And Sweet Pea and Fangs, just kept all this from me too?” 

“They figured it was easiest.They really like Betty.”

“I can see that.” Cheryl shakes her head. “I don’t like this but it doesn’t seem like I have much choice in the matter.”

“You do not. Unless you want to fire me.” Jughead says, and from his tone of voice, Cheryl knows that he already knows she’s not going to do that. How could she? A good hacker is hard to find. Particularly since the only other hacker she knows is Jughead’s girlfriend. 

She refocuses her mind on the warehouse in front of her. From her vantage point no one has gone in or out, but she wants to see closer. So what if Jughead told her not to. 

She shoots an arrow through the second story window, breaking the glass. Then she swoops across the alley on the line of the arrow and barrels through one of the second story warehouse windows. She lands in a crouch on the ground. 

Cheryl had expected some sort of reaction to her descent but nothing happens. The warehouse must be empty, because even a sleeping guard would wake up with the sound that window made while breaking, particularly followed by the sound of her body hitting the floor of the warehouse. 

She looks around. There are big wooden boxes surrounding her. She finds a crowbar and pries one open to reveal nothing. She starts to work on the next box. Suddenly there’s a blur of purple and when she look ups, she sees the Purple Flash, as gorgeous as ever. How the Flash manages to run that fast without turning her beautiful black hair into a frizz fest is a mystery to Cheryl. 

“Hello Flash.” Cheryl, says, putting a little fire into the words. 

“Arrow.” Purple Flash responds with just a touch of ice. “I saw you searching for something and thought i’d make it more efficient,” and with that the vision of a girl was replaced with a blur that dashed around the warehouse. 

Cheryl hears the noise of the crates opening and closing but it’s too fast for her to see anything. Suddenly Purple Flash is front of her again, the picture of composure. “There is nothing here.” 

“Shit.” Cheryl says, and then before she can stop herself she opens her mouth and says “Can I take you out for coffee?”

The Purple Flash smiles and raises one eyebrow, “Only if you tell me your secret identity?”

“Not yet.” Cheryl says. She can’t just hand out that information to any super heroine she finds hot. “That’s an honor you’ll have to earn.” 

The Flash transforms into a glowing purple line that moves past Cheryl swiftly. So swiftly that Cheryl is left wondering if the Purple Flash really kissed her cheek or not. 

Later Cheryl’s question is answered when she looks in the mirror and sees a dark red lipstick mark pressed against her cheekbone. 

**September**

Veronica doesn’t have a big budget, so once she discovered her superpowers, she didn’t have the luxury of building a super expensive headquarters, like the Bat Cave or Star Labs. Instead Veronica operates out of her apartment, and Betty workes out of her own apartment. A typical work from home situation that worked fine for Betty, before Betty met Jughead, and Jughead showed her his work space. 

Cheryl liked to call her headquarters Thornhill, but everyone else nicknamed it Redhill, and truth be told the red was a little overwhelming. It was the color of almost all the walls and all the furniture. Except in Jughead’s state of the art computer lab which was painted a cool blue. 

Betty worked out of here now most of the time. She has her own desk. This was largely possible because Cheryl so rarely spent time in Redhill at night, and because while Cheryl still terrified Betty, Jughead said that Cheryl now tolerated her presence.

What really kept Betty working there was Jughead. It was just so much nicer to spend hours on ones computer doing work, when ones significant other was just an arms reach away. It was also nice to spend breaks with Archie and Fangs. She had grown to like both men for different reason. 

Fangs and she had actually started to collaborate on a few mechanical projects. Betty had always thought she would be good building things, but it had never been one of her hobbies that her mother supported (hacking wasn’t either, for the record, but it was a lot easier to hide under the guise of homework). 

Archie and she had an easy sibling like relationship she’d come to rely on. They were both big fans of cute animal videos, the kind Jughead easily dismiss and drivel. She felt so much younger spending time with him. So what if he could knock someone out cold without breaking a sweat, he could also cry while watching panda’s hug. 

Cheryl still didn’t know who Betty worked for, which made the current situation, the one where Betty hunkered down in her desk chair while Cheryl paced the room and told Jughead all about her crush on the Purple Flash, all the more unbearable.

Particularly since Betty had been in a similar position to Jughead just 24 hours earlier, only it was Veronica who was regaling her with takes of the Red Arrows perfect lips and delicate complexion. 

If it was up to Betty she would just tell both of them who the other was and put them all out of their misery. But Jughead was opposed to doing that. He thought if the two heroes actually knew who each other were, things would only get worse for Betty and Jughead. They might have to hear even more details that they didn’t want to. 

Betty peeked up from her computer screen and saw how Jughead had trapped his lower lip in his teeth, presumably in an attempt to keep his mouth shut. 

Betty’s head movement, slight though it was, is enough to alert Cheryl of her presence. Cheryl walks towards her like a predator, “You, I want your opinion, as a girl. What should I do about the Purple Flash?”

“Tell her who you are.” Betty says. After all as long as things keep progressing the way they are, they are going to figure it out anyway. 

“Anything but that.” Cheryl says angrily, and then leaves the room.

“At least you got rid of her.” Jughead says with a shrug, swinging around to her side of the desk and kissing her.

“How can you work for her? She’s so aggressive.”

Jughead raises an eyebrow. “It’s all show.”

“All of it?” Betty says skeptically. 

“More like 50% of it.” Archie says over the comm link.

“Were you spying on us?” Jughead snaps.

One of the downsides of Redhill is that everything is monitored. There are cameras in every room. It comes in handy sometimes, particularly if a break-in happens. But most of the time it’s a little awkward. 

It’s how Betty and Jughead accidentally discovered that Archie and Fangs were hooking up. Not that either of them have told Archie and Fangs that. 

“Not deliberately.” Archie says. “But seriously, everyone knows about Veronica, except Cheryl. You should just put her out of her misery.”

“But I like it when she’s miserable.” Fangs weighed in on the comm. Betty glances over at the bank of video monitors in their room. She could see Fangs in the garage working on Cheryl’s car. Archie was in the gym, sweeping. 

“We really should get the comm and video links removed from your office.” Betty says loudly to Jughead. 

“We can hear that.” Fangs and Archie say in unison. 

“I wanted you to.” Betty says. She can’t help but smiling. Both guys had really come to feel like family. 

“Ok, we will stop eavesdropping.” Fangs says with a sigh.

“Better yet, I’m going to turn off the video and audio link to this room for a bit. Goodbye guys!” Jughead says, typing a command into the computer to sever the connection.

“Jug!” Fangs voice protests. But then the room falls silent, and Betty can see that the video and audio links have been turned off. 

She stands up and then sits down in Jughead’s lap, kissing him. At first it’s slow and comforting and then she can feel the need in it. She slowly pulls back from the kiss. 

“We don’t have time right now for anything more than this.” She says, pressing her cheek against his. 

“Then you shouldn’t have sat on my lap.” He teases as she gets up. 

“I probably shouldn't have.” She says with a halfhearted head shake. “Let’s find out where those drugs really are.”

 **October**

Betty has Veronica tailing someone called Malachi, because Betty’s sure that Malachi is the man behind the jingle jangle. 

Betty’s made it clear, that she thinks the lack of progress they made in this case is because Malachi keeps his operations largely offline. Making things impossible to hack into. Making it much harder for Betty to track him digitally. 

So now Veronica’s on spy duty, or at least that’s how she likes to think about it. She’s not wearing her suit for once. Instead she’s gone with an all black ensemble. Betty nixed the fancy handbag and high heels because they were “too indiscreet” (Betty’s phrasing, not Veronica’s). 

She’s also wearing a big brown curly wig. She had wanted to go with a blonde wig, but Betty was very vocal with her protests.Veronica had acquiesced reluctantly. Sometimes she really did wonder who employed who. 

“Do you still have eyes on him?” Betty says over the comm,.

“Yes.” She’s half a block behind Malachi, whose walking through a rather dodgy neighborhood like he owns the place. 

“Has he done anything suspicious?” Betty asks. Veronica can swear that just for a second she can hear something in the background. 

“Is that Jughead?” Veronica finds herself asking. 

Betty and she have been best friends since high school. Back then Betty was just an adequate hacker, not the superstar she was today, but even in high school where everyone seemed to be able to find someone to date, and even the social outcasts dated each other, Betty was out of the loop. Or appeared to be. 

It wasn’t that Betty wasn’t pretty or kind, she was both of these things. But Betty’s mind was often preoccupied with online matters, ones that Veronica tried not think about too much when they were in high school. 

So it came as a big surprise, when four months ago, Betty brought up a boyfriend. At first Veronica just assumed it was an internet thing. An online relationship would certainly be more manageable with Betty’s weird hours. Veronica wasn’t in the least shocked to discover that they had 1. Initially met online, and 2. That he was also a hacker. 

But then two months ago Betty had brought Jughead to brunch at Veronica’s place. Veronica was not impressed with the name, but the man himself seemed nice enough. His manners were not the best, but she liked his quips. The biggest surprise for her was how into each other they were. Betty never checked her phone, or pulled out her laptop the entire time. 

When Betty first explained that Jughead knew that Veronica was the Purple Flash, Veronica was pissed. They don’t call it a secret identity for no good reason. But she’s forgiven Betty now. Still she felt a little uncomfortable knowing that Betty and Jughead worked largely together.

“Yes, he’s helping us out tonight.”

“Fine.” Veronica says it, in such a way that makes it clear they have to talk later. 

“Do you still have eyes on Malachi?”

“Yes,” Veronica sighs heavily, before realizing that she does not. She scans the block quickly and then sprints to the next one. Thankfully she stops on the corner before he sees her. He’s halfway down the block, an apple in one hand. 

Then he turns towards Veronica, looks her straight in the eyes, and winks. Then he vanishes. Not instantly like Zoom, but in a poof of rather theatrical smoke, like an old stage magician. Veronica runs to where he was, but there are no trap doors, no hidden panels, just hard concrete. Malachi has superpowers. 

“Veronica?” Betty’s voice comes over the comm again.

“He’s a fucking super villain.” Veronica shouts. A stranger gives her an odd look, and crosses to the other side of the street.

 **November**

“Did either of you read comic books growing up?” Betty asks. 

Jughead, Jellybean, and Betty are all eating breakfast at the Jones’s apartment. Although as of this weekend it was the Jones-Cooper apartment. Jughead could tell that Betty was still adjusting to that fact. 

Jughead was curious as to why. It was frankly absurd that she’d spent rent on an apartment that she hadn’t slept in months. Particularly because Veronica underpaid Betty as far as Jughead was concerned. Betty defended her best friend, because as a semi-established super hero with a greatly diminished trust fund and no time to hold a real job, there was little money coming in. Betty kept insisting that once Veronica signed her first merchandise deal, Betty would ask for a raise. 

Still every time Jughead asked Betty about why she was reluctant to move in she deflected. Claiming that she was just thinking about Jellybean. JB for the record was thrilled by the change. She claimed the extra estrogen would keep the condo free from negative energy. 

“I wasn’t really a comic book kid.” Jellybean says. “I mean now that i’m an adult - I like graphic novels like Our Cancer Year or Saga, but as a kid, all the superhero comics were kind of boring.”

“I wasn’t a big fan of comics either. Super heroes were not my thing.” Jughead says. “I read Spider-man a little, but that was it. Most just seemed too flashy and ridiculous.”

Betty laughs, “I’m with you. They just seemed so silly. So childish.”

JB shakes her head, “That’s pretty funny considering both of you have now spent a big chunk of your adult lives working for superheros.”

“At least mine doesn’t actually have superpowers.” Jughead says, feeling a little smug. He’s enjoying the moment. His sister, the love of his life, and him, engaging in a lazy Saturday morning breakfast of coffee and muffins together. It feels so perfect, so domestic. 

“Hey,” Betty protests “at least mine doesn’t refer to herself as HIBC.”

JB laughs so hard a little bit of muffin escapes from her mouth. 

Betty excuses herself to shower and Jughead and JB start playing a video game on the sofa.

“I’m so glad Betty moved in.” Jughead says. He loves knowing she doesn’t have to be anywhere else for logistical reasons. She used to always be leaving to pick up extra clothes or something of the sort. “I don’t know why she didn’t do this earlier.”

JB shoots him a look and rolls her eyes. “For obvious reasons.”

“Really?” Jughead shoots her a look. 

“Do you not remember that long conversation she and I had, a couple months back.”

“Why would I remember a conversation you and Betty had?”, Jughead is feeling progressively more confused. 

“You were there.”

“What was it about?”

“It was about how lots of people move in together, and never get married and how that’s always made Betty sad, because she likes the commitment part of marriage. The fact that you both have to make sure you’re on the same page. ”

“Oh.” Jughead says softly, and then when it really hits him he says it louder “SHIT.”

JB pauses the game, which is for the best because Jughead was losing it rather badly. “Are you just now realizing the sort of commitment you asked of your significant other?”

“No, no, no…” Jughead drops his controller on the sofa and then stands up and goes into his room. He’s thankful to all that is holy that Betty is still in the shower. He digs the ring box out of his dresser drawer and brings it into the living room.

“Is that what I think it is?” JB asks.

“Yes.”

“When did you get it?” JB asks, as Jughead opens the box to show her. “It’s really beautiful.”

“Like three months ago. I just thought it was socially unacceptable to give it to her then.”

JB laughs “Since when have you cared about what society thinks?”

Jughead shrugs, “So you think she’ll say yes.” 

“I will.” Betty’s voice says, and Jughead spins around to see her standing there in a very fluffy pink bathrobe with tears in her eyes. Jughead is filled with relief, because of her words and the clear fact that the kind of crying she’s doing is the good kind. 

**December**

“Are you sure this is the right building?” Cheryl asks into the com. She’s on the roof of an apartment building staring at what looks like an abandoned factory. Half the windows are already broken. It’s in a sketchy part of town and the streets are mostly empty this time of night.

Jughead replies. “Of course I’m sure. This is it. The location of the building’s perfect. It’s near both land and water routes. It’s how Malachi has come to control all of the states drug trade.”

“You said you were sure before.”

“I told you to case the place before, and you fucking broke in when I told you not to.”

“And this time you're telling me to break in?” 

“Not just you.” Jughead says, “The Purple Flash too.”

“What!?!?” Cheryl doesn’t like that at all. She hasn’t seen the other women since the last warehouse encounter. She’s certainly thought about her though. But now she doesn’t want to see her, not with the implication that Jughead is working for her as well. 

“Betty works for her. We’re coordinating the attacks.”

“And you’re just telling me now?” A voice that must be the Purple Flashes crackles across the line.

“We like to keep you on your toes.” Betty says. 

Cheryl would like to scream at Jughead, but it’s far too awkward now that his girlfriend, and the girl of her actual dreams are on the comm line as well. Instead she pacifies herself by stomping a foot, and letting out a huff that the comm is not sensitive enough to pick up. 

“Malachi is in there right now.” Betty says. “Archie snuck in yesterday and planted video monitors. We can see him clear as day. So on our count we want you to break in as planned.”

“Ok.” Cheryl says, in a tone that implies other things. 

“Yes.” Veronica’s voice is sharp.

“On three.” Jughead says. “One, two, three”

Adrenaline swoops through Cheryl as she shoots the arrow, descends on the line, breaks through the remaining panes of glass, and lands on the floor. This time instead of an empty warehouse, she finds herself surrounded by a circle of black clad goons, all much bigger than her. 

Energy running though her, she spins while shooting arrow after arrow, moving as quickly as she can to reload. Around halfway through the circle, she takes aim, only for the goon to fall forward with a splat, her arrow still very much in her bow. 

That’s when she notices the Purple Flash, who appears out of the speed force with a smile on her beautiful lips.

“Hi gorgeous.” Cheryl says, before she can stop herself. She doesn’t know what it is about the Flash that brings out the shameless flirt in her. But something clearly does. 

The Purple Flash blows her a kiss, before saying “This seems to be the right place, but where is Malachi?” 

“Up here ladies.” A strange voice shouts, and Cheryl looks up in the rafters of the warehouse, and there is a man with long greasy hair and a painted face. He’s looking awfully smug for someone whose secret drug warehouse has just been busted. 

He shouldn’t have looked so confident though, because the Purple Flash moves so quickly Cheryl doesn’t even see the distinctive purple glow she usually makes when she moves, but somehow the Purple Flash is up in the rafters with Malachi. 

He punches her, or rather at her, because the Flash dodges easily. A mist starts to develop around Malachi as if he’s about to vanish, but the Flash must notice it because she snaps something onto his wrists and the mist dissipates. 

Malachi has a horrified look on his face. “What the hell did you do to me?” he screams. 

“Power dampening cuffs.” The Purple Flash says before delivering a solid blow to his head. Malachi slumps into her arms, and suddenly the Purple Flash is standing in front of Cheryl. Malachi is now thrown over her shoulder. 

“How about that date?” Cheryl asks the Purple Flash.

“Are you ready to give me a name?”

Cheryl smiles, “Maybe not my real one.”

The Purple Flash laughs. “Fair enough. I’m V.”

“Than I’m Cherry.”

“Pleased to meet you Cherry.” V says, depositing Malachi on the floor, and speeding around the room, opening one container after another, revealing drugs and more drugs. An entire room full of it. 

Cheryl has two feelings at war in her, one of relief and victory. The other is one of disappointment at how easy this was, how anti-climatic. 

Then V is standing in front of her a smile on her face and Cheryl only feel victorious. She kisses V and V’s lips are soft and gentle, and then less gentle. 

Only a groan from Malachi snaps them out of their bubble. Cheryl glances down at his body. He’s still unconscious, but not as much as he was earlier. His left hand twitches. 

“I’ll bring him in.” V says with a smile.

“Can I have your number?” Cheryl asks. 

“I think Betty or Jughead can give it to you.” V says “Because apparently our hackers are dating.”

Of course. Cheryl’s reminded of how annoyed she is with Jughead, who put together this whole sting, more or less without her. But she’s also grateful, because that was one of the most exceptional kisses she’s ever had.

“We are not dating.” Jughead’s voice says over the comm.

“Did you break up?” V asks, a hurt look on her face. 

“No. We’re engaged.” Jughead says.

 **January**

Betty has her hair up in a bun. She is wearing her favorite dress. It’s a soft silk blue, with this lacy hemline. She’s had it for years but rarely has an excuse to wear it. 

She hears a knock on her door and turns towards it, just as it opens to reveal Jellybean, who is also wearing a dress, although it is all black, there is no plaid in sight.

“Are you ready?” JB asks. “Jug’s already gone ahead to the courthouse. He says he doesn’t want to jinx anything by seeing the dress first.”

“I don’t believe in that particular superstition.” Betty says, although she’s a little relieved she chose a dress he hasn’t seen before from her closet. She had tried to find a new one, but none of them seemed as right as this one. “He does know I’m not wearing white?”

“Yes.” JB says with a smile. “The Lyft is waiting.”

“I’m ready.” Betty glances in the mirror one last time, and can’t help but smile at herself. The next time she looks in a mirror she will probably be married. 

In the car she starts to feel a little nervous. Not about marrying Jughead. She’s confident she made the only choice there, but about the fact that they’re completely ignoring most social conventions while they are going about doing this. 

Betty hasn’t spoken to her mother in years, for a very good reason, but every now and then her mother's voice will sneak back into her head. Right now that voice is very angry with her for eloping. For not even telling most of their friends. For throwing the proper ways of going about things out the window. 

“Betty, are you ok?” JB asks, a gentle hand resting on Betty’s arm. Her voice and her touch is enough to snap Betty out of her anxiety, out of her head.

“I will be.” Betty says, turning towards JB and smiling softly. “I just hope no one will be too mad at us for eloping.”

Only Jellybean will be there as a witness. The second witness will just have to be a secretary at the courthouse. They couldn’t ask Cheryl or Veronica to do the honors, because both of them would have tried to turn the simple ceremony (if you could even call signing a document that) into more. 

“If anyone gets angry with you, tell me.” Jellybean says, “I can yell at them for you.” 

Betty had no doubts that her soon to be sister in law would do exactly that. “Thank you, JB.” 

The car pulled over in front of the courthouse and Betty thanks the driver before getting out. It is snowing and Betty pulls her coat tightly around herself as she walks up the courthouse steps. 

The first person she sees when she opens the door is Jughead. He has this particular smile on his face, one that he seems to reserve for Betty. 

“I love you.” he says, and kisses her softly. Betty decides this is the best way to say hello.

“I love you.” She replies when he pulls his lips away, his hand still on the small of her back. 

“Ok, enough with the PDA,” JB says without venom, leading the way to the small impersonal office where they will get married in. 

The officiant is a severe looking women who gets the paperwork done in less than 5 minutes without smiling once. Still Betty can feel her own body glowing with happiness, with the thrill of knowing that they are really brave enough to make this commitment to each other. 

The officiant refuses to take their picture with Jellybean so Jellybean takes a picture of Jughead and Betty after, as they stand side by side on the steps of the courthouse, looking in every way like the definition of love (JB’s words, not Bettys).

After a few more photos they go out to their favorite Chinese restaurant and order way too much food. Betty is floating on happiness in such a way that makes it difficult to eat, so they have lots of white boxes to bring home afterwards. Only JB takes the boxes because Jughead surprises Betty by insisting they go elsewhere. 

Confused and curious, she isn’t entirely surprised when the car pulls up in front of the Five Seasons, and Jughead checks them in, not to a room but a suite, with a bathtub that looks like everything Betty’s dreams are made of. 

**February**

“I can’t believe they got married without us.” Cheryl says. They are in an uptown bar with a beautiful view of the city, and Veronica had been so excited before she got here. This was their first official date after all. 

They had spent a lot of time together since the grand drug bust and Cheryl had revealed her name rather quickly, but they had yet to go on that promised first date till now. 

But due to some accidental quirk of timing Cheryl had found out about Jughead and Betty’s marriage today. Veronica herself had found out last week. She had gotten mad at her best friend but she’d also understood. She knew how Betty’s mother was, how getting married without a ton of people and a huge ceremony was probably a smart thing for Betty’s health and well being.

Cheryl was still clearly in the angry stage of processing the information. 

Veronica leans back in their booth and looks out at the city they both spent so much of their lives protecting. Cheryl is still ranting about Betty and Jughead when Veronica decides that she has had enough. 

“Cheryl, please shut up.” Veronica says. “I want to date you, and you want to date me, so why don’t you stop talking about our damn friends, and have some fun.”

A shocked look crosses Cheryl’s face, but it is quickly replaced with a smile. 

“Yes, I do think that is the wise thing to do.” Cheryl leans across the table and gives Veronica a gentle kiss. 

The next hour passes quickly, filled with flirting, and word play. 

But then Veronica can tell that something has shifted because Cheryl looks serious again. They’re both sitting on the same side of the booth now. 

Veronica extends a comforting arm around Cheryl, and whispers softly in her ear “What is it?”

Cheryl meets Veronica’s gaze and says “I just want you to know that I don’t believe in eloping.” 

The very idea of Cheryl Blossom having a courthouse wedding made Veronica laugh uncontrollably. Cheryl pulls away in surprise. A look of hurt on her face. 

Veronica forces herself to stop laughing. It takes a few minutes, but it finally sticks. When it does, she turns to Cheryl and says very firmly, “I don’t think anyone who has met you thinks that you would be the kind of person who wants anything other than a lavish wedding.”

A bright smile transforms Cheryl’s face, “More reassuring words have never been spoken.”

 **March**

Jughead’s in the cabana looking over the beach. His wife is lying next to him, in a polka dot bikini, reading Surfacing by Margaret Atwood (“Are you sure that’s the best vacation read, Betts?”). 

All is right in the world as he is reading Train Dreams by Dennis Johnson (“You are not in any position to judge vacation reads, Jughead.”), and enjoying the slight breeze from the ocean as well as the shade of the cabana. Neither of them are really “sun worshipers”, but it’s nice to be sun adjacent for a change. 

He takes a sip of virgin pina colada and tries to refocus on the book, but Betty’s position on the lounge chair across from him, is awfully distracting. He’s about to say something to that effect when his phone rings.

He glances lazily at the caller ID. It’s Cheryl. She has called every day since they left. He answered the first time assuming it was an emergency but when he realized she was only trying to figure out how to work the coffee machine he hung up. 

He ignores the call, but then Betty’s phone rings. She shakes her head, shows him the caller ID, even though he already knows it’s Veronica, and chooses to send an auto generated I’m busy text. 

In the process of finding and answering their phones, they had both sat up, and were now facing each other. Jughead closes the gap between them with a kiss, Betty’s lips are happy to meet his and he doesn’t even mind the slight taste of sunscreen, instead he’s caught up with her tongue slipping its way into his mouth. 

Both phones start to ring at the same time. This is unprecedented. “Maybe it actually is an emergency?” Betty says although her tone is skeptical.

“If it was a real emergency, couldn’t Veronica just run here?”

“We do not want her to do that!” Betty says picking up her phone and putting it on speaker. “Hello.”

Veronica’s voice on the other end is high pitched. “Cheryl said she loves me.”

Jughead sighs. This is not an emergency. This isn’t something he wants to involved with in any way. A relationship should be between two people, not two people and their friends. 

So instead of saying anything, or encouraging Betty to say anything, he said very loudly into the phone “This is our honeymoon. The only thing that counts as an emergency is if Central City is in imminent danger of self destructing. We will talk to you in three days, when we are home.” 

With that, he hangs up.

Betty’s expression is half smile and half frown, which makes sense because she actually cares about being polite, while he does not. Besides in his opinion the ruder thing to do is call a couple on their honeymoon. 

“Did you really have to do that?” Betty asks. 

“Yes, I did.” Jughead says, and before they can get into an in depth discussion about it, he kisses her.

Fin

**Author's Note:**

> I usually skip engagements and wedding scenes (even elopement ones) but I could stop myself from writing this one, because of how mad I still am about how the writers did the West-Allen’s wrong with their wedding. Seriously no one should have their vows crashed by another (lesser) couple. 
> 
> This has been by far the longest one-shot I’ve ever written! So if you love it, like it, or just want to rant to me about the West-Allen wedding (or ask me who the West-Allens are), please leave a comment.


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